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Hello from Omaha, Nebraska

vpgaliet

By vpgaliet
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vpgaliet

vpgaliet

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Greetings everyone!

My name is Vince and I live in the U.S. midwest in Omaha, NE. I retired from the Air Force in 1998 where I worked on most of the avionic systems on RC-135 aircraft. These days I have a much more mundane career as a software programmer for a financial transaction processor.

I just purchased my telescope last March. Prior to that my experience with the hobby had been restricted to viewing the discovery channel and image sites like APOD and the Hubble Site. I do bet a lot of people are like me though in that we had the cheap department store telescopes as a kid and always wanted more. In my case it was a small 3 in reflector with a swivel tripod for a mount and very bad plastic eyepieces. I promised myself I would one day get a bigger, better telescope, and it only took me about 45 years to get it (I turn 52 next month).

The telescope I have is a Celestron C8-NGT and so far I have only a few token accessories, most of which came with the telescope. I purchased this scope because I wanted a Go-To scope with at least 8 inches of aperture and one that I could try my hand at astrophotography with. Before I really start delving into advanced topics like AP, I've just been spending most of my observing time trying to learn the night sky. My very first night out with my telescope was quite a lesson in how much I needed to learn. When presented with the list of stars to choose for a two star alignment, I was actually lucky to even recognize two. I couldn't add in any calibration stars afterward because I just didn't know what any of the additional ones were.

I'm getting better now at recognizing the stars. I am totally dependent on technology though and I bring a laptop with stellarium on it outdoors with me to assist in my viewing. It really does help me. I also learned that I live in a red zone for light pollution and live shockingly close to a white area. I had been struggling to see the full constellations but now I understand why. Only the brightest stars are visible. What a shame. I remember back in 1997 taking my daughter outside to see comet Hale-Bopp and the skies were certainly darker. At times it was easy to see the milky way. Now I live 20 miles farther outside of town and the skies are terrible. I only can see it in pictures these days.

I don't have any particularly favorite type of astronomical object to view. If the moon is out I can spend hours on that. During darker conditions, I enjoy hunting the faint fuzzies, and lately I've been viewing some open clusters. Almost every time I've gone out, I just had to take a look at Saturn as I think it's one of the most beautiful objects out there and being a planet, it's nice and bright! :laugh:

I'll be the first to admit that I can ramble on in my posts without really getting to the point, so I better end it now. Look forward to getting to know everyone!

Thanks

Vince

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Vince and welcome to SGL, I am afraid as our technology advanced over the years, so did our light pollution, back in 1960 parts of my City were still lit by gas. It takes time to learn your way about the night sky so we often recommend the use of binoculars and a star map like sky and telescopes pocket sky atlas. Enjoy your Astronomy :)

John.

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TRNunes

TRNunes

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Vince,

Welcome from another Midwesterner! And definitely no need to apologize, as I really enjoyed your 'ramble'. It's nice to 'hear' someone else's passion for the hobby, and you expressed yours quite well!

Quick question... Have you investigated/visited your local astronomy users group/association? I ask because parts of Nebraska have some of the darkest skies in North America (and yes, being near Chicago, I know said dark sky locales are probably a few miles further out from downtown Omaha (pained smile)), and astronomy groups often have private "dark sky sites" available for member use. Also, the fellow members you meet will have a wealth of advice you'll be able to harvest on a one-on-one basis.

Once again, welcome, and clear (and dark) skies!

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Andymarrison

Andymarrison

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Hello Vince and welcome to SGL! I too had one of those same department store scopes, but it took me slightly less time to get around to buying an 8" Celestron (bought it two months ago, at the age of 44! (me, not the scope!!)). I have been blown away by Saturn, too, and the other objects I've found breathtaking are the globular clusters, particularly M3, M5 and, of course, M13. Enjoy the new scope - I'm sure it's been worth the wait!

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